Welcome to another edition of The Mueller Report!
You may or may not have noticed that I basically took a month hiatus on sending out this newsletter. I realized I might miss one or two but once you let go of a habit, it takes effort to get it back and I didn’t put that effort in until earlier this week.
I have traversed a good part of the country with the whole family since I last wrote, spending time in Pittsburg, Des Moines, Minnesota, and Colorado. It involved 5 hour, 8 hour, 13 hour, and 15 hour drives with five small children – but we made it! And recovered eventually…
I’ve also flown back to NJ a couple times to finish out some classes and meetings in-person. Earlier this week as I was going through security in Denver, I couldn’t help but wonder – is this still the United States? With mask mandates and other Covid protocols, TSA K-9 units checking passengers as they file two by two through security lines, not to mention the already wasteful, intrusive, and largely ineffective security process legacy of the Bush administration. Ah well, it could be worse – we could live basically anywhere else in the world.
But enough anecdote and griping, today I am sharing some reflections on a powerful and extremely well done podcast created by Mike Cosper at Christianity Today called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.
Background
For those of you who don’t know, Mars Hill was a church founded in the late 1990s in Seattle by Mark Driscoll and two other men who fade into the background as the church becomes centered entirely on Mark. It grew into a megachurch, at its height counting over 15,000 members across a dozen campuses. Most of the campuses were in Seattle though there was one in Portland and one in Albuquerque. The goal at one point was to become the largest church in America with something like fifty campuses with an average of 1,000 people each.
A lot of the podcast revolves around Mark Driscoll since he was the leader, or more like celebrity/CEO, of Mars Hill. It discusses his preaching, personality, relationships, etc.
But much more than that, the podcast focuses on the stories and experiences of people who were at Mars Hill, some for more than a decade, who left or more often were kicked out with deep disillusionment and suffering in the process. Because I am pressed for time, I’ll give bullet points of issues and observations that the story of Mars Hill raises for Christians in the United States, especially evangelicals.
Thoughts & Issues
How should Christians think about impact? Is it important for churches to grow larger? Should we primarily have a church plant mindset?
What role do good leaders/pastors/theologians play in the life of the church? Does charisma matter? Should we have heroes and mentors and role models in the faith? Or does that take our eyes off Christ and set us up for abuse and disillusionment?
How important is theology in the life of the church? Does the character and culture of leaders and the church matter more? Are these things at odds?
What should we call people to? I confess that I agree with much of what Mark Driscoll preached – that is, I think a good part of his vision for successful Christian families was correct. Yet, there are several points where Mark seems to stray from the vision he calls people towards.
How should we think about masculinity and femininity?
How did Mark Driscoll pervert or misstate complementarianism and how do we avoid doing similarly?
Driscoll had incredible appeal to young men with his "grow up" or "man up" attitude - encouraging them to get married, buy houses, and be leaders in their families. Can we echo his exhortation without slipping into the machismo and brashness he regularly exhibited (what MacArthur calls "Grunge Christianity")
What should authority in the church look like? How do we weigh giftedness, evangelistic or church growth success, and character? Or to take a phrase from the podcast, how do we avoid "someone's platform outgrowing their character?"
What should we make of the multi-campus, megachurch phenomenon in the U. S.? Is it categorically bad? What drives it? What are the alternatives?
How do we think about accountability for prominent leaders while not giving into speculative witch hunts or personal vendettas?
How do we assess and address spiritual "abuse" or spiritual "trauma"?
Relatedly, is the heavily therapeutic language and focus in the podcast dangerous or misleading? If so, what should we accept and what should we reject?
More generally, how should we think about the use and adoption of secular terminology that becomes popular - whether therapeutic language or something like "deconstruction" or "cisgender"?
I am holding an a conference call on Monday with a variety of people who have listened to the podcast to discuss many of these issues. I may report back at more length next week on that.
Hope you are having a good Advent season!